“Well, there was no way anyone could know that a hurricane whose core was hundreds of miles offshore could hit that hard.”
“Listen, if we throw tomatoes at the screen, it will wreck the screen, but Grayson, can you build us a transporter machine like the ones on Star Trek real quick?”
“Nope. He deserves it, but, wrong century. Call me in 2220.”
Mrs. Thalia Ludlow cracked up laughing at the interplay of bad politicians and her grandchildren eight-year-old Edwina and six-year-old Grayson Ludlow, but …
“It's real bad when grandkids are as young as mine, and they know an adult is telling a patent lie,” she said to Mrs. Gladys Jubilee Trent.
“Oh,” Mrs. Jubilee Trent said, “you should have heard Gracie and Velma just roasting that man, talking about, 'Sir, do you have your phone? Do you watch the news sometimes? And if you don't, what are you even doing?' So then Milton walked in and said, 'Forget this mess – I'mma run for whatever and replace this guy!' So then Tom tried to be the voice of reason and said you have to be at least 18 to be in office, only to have Milton respond, 'Well, I'm half of eighteen but I have way more sense than this guy, so, let's work something out!'”
Mrs. Ludlow laughed, and then sighed.
“It's actually really sad, what Lofton County has come to in terms of governance. I'm from San Francisco, and San Francisco definitely has its corrupt element, but this is on a whole different level.”
Mrs. Jubilee Trent smiled faintly.
“San Francisco is younger, and like all major port cities, more mobile,” she said. “Here, we have literally settled on our lees – pun fully intended in Virginia – and so the old wineskins have burst at last. But, this is a necessary part of the process of things getting better – people have to see that their lives depend on it, and that the danger is not going to be confined to those they think less of.”
“Because hurricanes and tornadoes don't care,” Mrs. Ludlow said, “while there is a God in Heaven who remembers and is just, and does care and knows how to make others care and do right.”
“Ain't it the truth,” Mrs. Jubilee Trent said. “That's why we gotta raise these babies to do right before pressure is applied like this.”
“Yep,” Mrs. Ludlow said. “Cannot have our grandchildren out here in danger of being covered with tomators and then roasted like the present crew is getting. Nope.”
“To think that if it were the year 2220, Grayson would have just built the transporter and then beamed Edwina, Gracie, and Velma into the press conference with the tomatoes and the roasting,” Mrs. Jubilee Trent said. “Gots to be more careful out here – time is winding up!”